Tuesday, November 17, 2015

TR 9:25 a.m. Review Notes

Here are our notes for class (TR 9:25-10:40). Thanks!



Underbelly of Movie Industry (from the blog + class)
- Tricky Hollywood accounting
- prevention of profit sharing; illusion that a profit is never made; studio charges itself claiming distribution charges, but distributor is owned by studio
- Theater extortion
- studios get almost all, if not all, of ticket sales; therefore concessions prices are hiked up to compensate for the loss of profit
- Fake Reviews
-studios hire people to write fake reviews/positive reviews
- Copyright Battles
-you can’t copyright an idea- pitching an idea that can’t be copyrighted could result in the loss of the idea to another entity: i.e. Facebook
- Script theft accusations
-writers who pitch ideas claim studios stole scripts but in reality, there were never copyrighted
- Writers don't come up with ideas (producers do)
-writers are then paid to take the idea and develop it
- Importance of the international market
- if a movie won’t translate well to other markets, it won’t be made; if references aren’t identifiable by other cultures it will not be successful
- Development hell
-what happens after a script is sold; who knows if it will ever make it to a screen!
- The movie ratings system
- content determined by the studios to get the rating they want, G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, big studios get more wiggle room with content than smaller studios, X-rating no longer used except for in porn.
- The importance of merchandising
- to keep profit flowing in afterward ticket sales; if a movie can’t be turned into merchandise and other properties, it won’t be produced.


Drama & Storytelling 
Dramatic formula
- Exposition/introduction = normal life (regular universe) 
- Rising Action = started by trigger/inciting incident (character development + plot twists)
- Climax = Point of no return!
- Falling Action = picking up pieces of story (does hero win? what are results of climax?)
- Denouement = new universe (seeing emotional change in the protagonists life and how the story changed them)
Stock characters
-reluctant hero = hero that doesn't wanna hero today.
-comic sidekick = funny sidekick that hangs and can sometimes ruin a story
-nerdy girl = zooey deshanel
-wacky neighbor = flanders
-wise old man = mr. miyagi
Stock Situations
-bitter rivals = pokemon
-dysfunctional nuclear family = simpsons
-middle child = Malcolm in the middle 
-team of three girls = powerpuff girls
-ill-fated lovers = romeo and Juliet
Plot = story? overall story arch
Theme = central topic story follows (underlying message/big idea)
Genres = (tragedy, comedy, mystery, action/horror, reality) 
Sports as drama = football (expo would be pregame) (kick off = trigger) (rising action = different plays) (climax maybe 4th quarter) (denouement = which team wins in the end)

Sound recording overview

Phonograph and Edison- Invented by Edison, helped revolutionize sound recording. Specifically he didn't think it would be used for music.

Gramophone and Berliner- Invented by Berliner, intended for music.

Nickelodeons- Pay a penny to hear a sound recording, or see pictures.

Cylinders vs. flat discs- Two different ways to record sound. Flat disks worked better.

Berliner’s Victrola- Mass produced flat phonograph record

Impact of radio on recording industry- Almost killed the recoding industry. People were able to access music without a physical copy of the music. Also access to music without the need to purchase it.

Importance of the jukebox during the Depression- Gave people a sense of hope during a dark time.

Rock n’ roll’s importance- Saved the music industry, also a new form of music.

RIAA- A trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry

New business models- Subscription and streaming servces. Rather than buying individual music.

Organization of industry—talent, production, distribution, retail

Types of distribution- Radio, physical copies, streaming 

Ownership of industry- The big 4 that own the industry. Universal owns EMI and their 8% share. In total owns 43% of the market. Sony owns 22%.

Departments within typical recording company- Talent, distribution, production, retail, and syndication 

Economic State of Music Sales Worldwide (IFPI Digital Music Report)- 6.8 Billion revenue in 2014, streaming music is increasing.

Nielsen Music Report- Monitor the music industry and report quantitative data.


  1. Marconi broadcasted Morris Code, Fessenden was the first time the human voice was heard on radio, de Forest created the vacuum tube
  2. TV on Radio-Radio is the foundation for what happens on TV, and TV wouldn’t be what it is without radio
  3. “Toll broadcasting” gave radio a way to monetize that didn’t anger listeners
  4. FM (frequency modulation)-better sound, but cannot travel as far
  5. AM (amplitude modulation)-broadcast far, but inferior sound
  6. Voice compression-shrink pauses to add more commercials
  7. KDKA-first radio station in the country
  8. Radio Act of 1927-created by the FRC
  9. Communications Act of 1934-created by the FCC, FRC became FCC, thought they’d be more in future
  10. Telecommunications Policy of Act of 1996



Understanding TV Ratings (from blog + class)  

Nielsen Media Research- Gathering information on how many households are watching certain program at a certain time

Rating vs. Share (know that successful talk shows typically get low ratings but high shares) Rating is % of potential houses. Shares are when TV is turned on

Key Demo for entertainment-18-49
Key Demo for news-25-54
GRP = "gross ratings point"
HUT- households using television
TVHH- Television HouseHolds
C3-Commercials 3 days after
number of individual who watch commercials 3 days after air date
target audience=18-49yrs old
Live + 7- top watched tv shows including what is watched on DVR
Nielsen Family- family whose TV watching habits are recorded for studies
Overnight Ratings (Set-top boxes)
Sweeps Months (November, February, May, July)- May and November are big sweeps months, February and July/August are mini sweeps months
People Meters- audience measuring tool used to measure viewing habits of viewers
Diaries-People writing down TV viewing habits (what they watch & when)
Telephone Coincidentals- who's watching what on each television by calling 


 Hollywood is Producing Higher Highs, Lower Lows
Big budget films are either hit or miss creating a risky environment for films creating more competition for big box films. Mid-range films are not doing well.

2014 Studio Profitability
Both Paramount and Universal went down in everything. Disney's profitability outranked everyone else.


Disney sets revenue record
Disney set a revenue record of $52.5 billion and scored a record $8.4 billion in net income. Disney reminds Wall Street that there will be three Star Wars movies released before the end of 2017. Disney also announced that they struck a deal allowing Sony's PlayStation Vue to stream its channels, including ABC and ESPN.

2014 Theatrical Market Statistics
Chinese box office increases 34% in 2014. It became the first international box office to surpass $4 billion in sales. 57% of box office revenue came from women. 


IFPI Digital Music Report 2014

Stream and subscription rates surge & performance rights grow (p7)
Digital revenue breakdown- Downloading #1 way to obtain music
Global Recording Artists- Top 5
1)    One Direction
2)    Eminem
3)    Justin Timberlake
4)    Bruno Mars
5)    Katy Perry
Spotify- top way to stream music online
Physical campaign in a digital world
·         Vinyl starts to make a comeback


Understanding TV Ratings

Common Terms:
TV HHs: the Nielsen estimate of the number of television households in the USA

PERS 2+: The Nielsen estimate for the number of people aged 2 and over in the USA

LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day the program was broadcast (kind of, see below)

LIVE+7: Same as above, but 7 days rather than 3.

Ratings: Nielsen uses a ratings point system. 1 ratings point = 1% of the Nielsen estimate for the category being measured (more detail below).

A18-49 or Adults 18-49 Ratings  -  advertising demographic advertisers are usually most interested in for primetime shows.  It's the important number in terms of how well a show is doing.  Total viewers (P2+ above) don't really make a difference.

Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live + Same Day (Live+SD) and Live + 7 Day (Live+7).

Households Using Television (HUT): The percentage of all television households in a survey area with one or more sets in use during a specific time period.

One rating point = 1% of the Nielsen universe.
(If you see a HHs rating of 6.2, that means 6.2% of the households were tuned into that program.)

Who Owns Radio in the U.S.

ABC Radio:
    73 Radio stations throughout nation in leading markets
    ABC Inc. is subsidiary of Walt Disney Company

Beasley Broadcasting:
    Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc.
    42 stations (26 FM, 16 AM)
    Since 1961
    Large to midsize markets

Buckley Radio:
    20 stations in seven market

CBS Radio - Infinity Broadcasting:
    179 Stations
    Nation’s top 50 markets

Clear Channel:
    240 stations in US, Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand

COX Radio:
    One of largest broadcasting companies in US
    80 stations in 18 markets

Cumulus:
    Second largest broadcasting company based on numbers
    Broadcasts to mid-size markets
    306 Stations in 61 markets

Emmis:

    Owns many large stations in the US

What TV Ratings Really Mean
-Knowing who’s watching
-Nielson Media Research finds out who watches by measuring a sample size of viewers.
-The sample is around 5,000 households containing over 13,000 people to represent the 110 million households in US.
-Nielson measures the number of homes, TVs, programs, commercials and people
-In order to measure these factors, subjects agree to have metering equipment installed on their TVs, VCRs (if they still have them) and cable boxes or satellite dishes.
-The meters are connected to a black box and in the middle of the night the information from all black boxes are sent to Nielson’s central computers.
-When and where commercials are aired is measured.
-Ratings care much about who is watching, especially age demographics, 18-49 being known as the “key demo.”
-In addition to meters, diaries are another way Nielson gets people to record their viewing habits. They write down who watched, what they watched and what channel.
-Ratings are used to attract advertisers or tell a network whether to renew or cancel a show.





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